Back in that other game, there was a scripting language developed that allowed incredible control over all aspects of the arena.
I was deeply involved in using that scripting language to do many different things.
Here are a few examples:
Battle of Britain September 1940- A real time event.
I programmed scripts that controlled the duration of the day and made them match real time. The game had aircraft limits that were configurable for each individual field. I placed the historical number of each aircraft type at its historical field. If you destroyed it, it was gone. Just like real life. At night only night type were flyable. Objects destroyed, stayed destroyed. The event was 60 hours long and simulated 60 actual hours. It included AI bomber raids by the Luftwaffe that matched historical raids. Every other vehicle was player driven.
Tunisia
I programmed scripts for actual aircraft numbers again and used AI to simulate the Ju52 supply line the Germans had from Sicily. Scripts also controlled who owned what airfields via lines of supply. If you cut a supply line by capturing a town on a road everything else down the road slowly changed sides as long as you held that key town. I used the same concept in a European map but it was much more complex. It really changed the way the battle were fought. Instead of nearest airfield endless furball, folks would put together strikes and go for key supply points. In the european campaign I developed a strategic bombing campaign using tonnage on target. The more bombs that were put on target the smaller the supply net that city could supply. Heavy bombers could cause the germans to lose towns and airfields simply by keeping constant pressure on a city. As an example, 150 B17's worth of bombs in a 4 hour period would cause 5 airfields supplied by the city to become inactive.
In the phillipines terrain I designed a sea based supply convoy system. Each side had a major port that supplied medium ports which in turn fed small ports which directly supplied individual islands. Truck convoys supplied the land bases. Players could attack the trucks and cut off one base. Attack a port and cut off an island. Attack the ships themselves and cut off supply. Ports rebuilt faster than ships could sail the distance so ships would hurt more to lose. Cutting off a medium port had more effect than a small and killing off the major port won the war.
Lots of AI in some of these. Some had no AI.
I found that players HATE aircraft AI. They don't mind ship or GV AI. They don't really like indirect cause and effect. Losing an airfield's fighters 50 miles away from a port that supplied it because the port was destroyed or the ships going to the port were sunk wasn't well received.
Same with getting cut off after creating a bulge in the enemy line when the enemy counterattacked and killed the supply line to the bulge. They didn't like that too much either.
Personally, I find AI bombers are much more realistic. They fly like real world bomber pilots flew. I got flamed every time I said that.
One of my favorite uses of AI bombers was as follows:
There was the capability for moving spawn points including airspawn. I programmed AI bomber formations that flew in an almost 1 to 1 scale europe map from england to berlin (3 hours each way). Fighter escort could spawn in near the bombers in flight until they were halfway across the north sea. Guys who discoed in bombers were allowed to respawn with the bombers over the entire route. That was pretty cool. Human bombers flew with the AI and humans escorted in fighters.
That was the best use of AI aircraft I found. A method to allow others to join a mission in progress. Of course this could be easily abused if you allow fighters to join after the bombers get into enemy territory.
